Prologue:

I started playing Circle the week after Lock and Load 2016, when I realized that I would rather paint Warpwolves than continue to paint Stormlances.

They served me well, and I played them for an entire year - a first for me.

With the advent of Grymkin and my general dissatisfaction with how Circle has been playing, not the power level but the playstyle, I decided to do something really dumb for Masters at Lock and Load this year.

Thursday afternoon I had this:

And Thursday night at around midnight I had this:

Those sweet, sweet resin bases can be found in my good friend Tyson's webstore here and here and he has a ton of other really awesome ones on his website - well worth the investment!

I decided that I was going to take The Child and The Heretic, as they seemed like the simplest ones to use with the least things for me to forget. They are both also on ADR. In an ideal world with tons of time to practice, I probably would have played the Dreamer and King of Nothing, but I simply had no time.

I ADRed out my Rattler for two more Crabbits, and chose Sacrifice and Desolation as my two Arcana. The Second one was almost definitely a mistake, but again, first time playing these guys.

We were playing extraction, and I lost the roll off. I chose the side with the best defensive terrain and off we went!

Khador turn 1:

Everything moves up pretty far. Redline goes on the Juggernaut and Ayanna's unit gets to be Stealthy.

Grymkin turn 1:

I feel like rather than trying to figure out what my army does, Alex is most likely just going to try and kill the Child this next turn, so I layer all of my beasts to make that impossible without first removing one of them.

The Dread Rots move up to die so I can get corpses onto the Death Knell.

Tantrum goes up, and things move forward.

I've got the Glimmer Imp slightly too exposed here, and this will be important over the next turn.

Khador turn 2:

My opponent dinks around a bit here. His guns are largely irrelevant because of Crabbits, but he does manage to kill the Glimmer Imp.

Sorscha, in order to stay far enough away from Skin and Moans to be safe retreats about a half inch too far and killboxes herself (they threat fourteen inches with the Child).

My opponent is only contesting the flags with three Widowmakers and Alexia at this point, and I see a chance to score to four and have almost no way to lose here.

Score: 2 - 0 Advantage Grymkin

Grymkin turn 2:

My Tantrum trigger happens on the right hand Skin and Moans. If I can kill Alexia with my Gorehound, I can get him into the objective and instantly win.

My left Gorehound goes in and boosts attacks to kill two of three Widowmakers.

I send the other one into Alexia and half kill her, so Skin and Moans gets loaded up by the Death Knell and goes in.

Three boosted and one unboosted 8 misses later, and she's still alive and kicking and I'm in massive trouble.

Aside:

My dice were legitimately terrible this entire event. I didn't roll well a single game, and in fact rolled so poorly that my opponents apologized on more than one occasion. I want to put that out here now and won't touch on it again for the next three battle reports, but this Skin and Moans activation was the beginning of a trend.

End Aside

The Dread Rots run up, one sitting an inch away from the last Widowmaker, not engaging it thanks to facing.

The Cage Rager moves up, and the Child Force Hammers his own Dread Rot to clear the flag.

Gremlin Swarms swarm the Juggernaut, and one is able to walk up and do some damage to him.

I score another point.

Score: 3 - 0Advantage Grymkin

Khador turn 3:

Alex starts the turn off by shooting Skin and Moans with everything he can. I shield guard the shot from Alten because if he lives, I need to be able to heal him.

The Marauder slams into the Gorehound on the left and instantly kills it. I trigger the Sacrifice and heal the Skin and Moans up to full.

The Juggernaut activates and gets -2 Speed and Damage, but with some good rolls kills off the poor zombie beast.

No more points are scored on account of everything being dead and Sorscha moving out of the killbox.

Score: 3 - 0Advantage Grymkin

Grymkin turn 3:

The Redline and Gremlin Swarm damage adds up, and the Juggernaut is only on about 8 boxes.

Two Crabbits fail to kill off the last four health on Alexia.

I charge the Death Knell in, and do no damage to the Juggernaut. I'd love to send the Child in, but Sorscha hasn't feated yet and I can't.

I Abuse and Enrage the Cage Rager who charges in and kills the Marauder (Dice +1 and a free charge overcomes!) and set up the Skin and Moans to murder Behemoth if he comes after the Cage Rager.

Looking back at this, I could have totally committed the Child and gotten out with Lightning Strike, but I forgot I had it.

Score: 3 - 0 Advantage Grymkin

Khador turn 4:

Taking full advantage of my situation, my opponent moves Sorscha around and feats.

Behemoth plus other shots kill the Cage Ragers Spirit (oof) and the Juggernaut with its busted everything fails to kill the Death Knell.

Alexia kills a Grymkin and makes a dude who kills a Crabbit.

Score: 3 - 0Advantage Grymkin

Grymkin turn 4:

Kell isn't contesting the left flag, so if I can get the Skin and Moans to clear the two Widowmakers I can send in the Child to clear the two guys on the right hand flag and take it with a Crabbit.

Unfortunately, Skin and Moans misses both boosted attacks on the Widowmaker grunt and the Cage Rager couldn't shake Stationary because his Spirit was out.

Gremlin Swarms kill the Juggernaut with help from the Death Knell, and multiple Crabbits again fail to kill Alexia.

Score: 3 - 0Advantage Grymkin

Khador turn 5:

Behemoth blasts the Cage Rager to death along with Ayanna and Holt.

Sorscha charges the Skin and Moans and boosts, nailing the Crit Stationary and killing the beast with a few swings, clearing the flag.